Eight integrative doctors are under attack in Louisiana. Help them with our Action Alert.

We have discussed the biases of state medical boards against integrative practitioners—the problem is systemic across the US. Now there appears to be a pattern of abuse against CAM practitioners in Louisiana. Here’s one example: An integrative physician, who wishes to remain anonymous, was recently subjected to a complaint filed by the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners (LSBME).

The complaint represented the LSBME’s attempt to disguise its bias against the doctor’s integrative treatments by targeting a minor record-keeping violation and slapping him with penalties far beyond what such small infractions usually incur. The doctor appealed the decision and had many of the penalties revoked, yet the board still tried to suspend the doctor—against the ruling of the court! After further legal battles, the doctor prevailed, but in the process suffered loss of income and loss of patients, not to mention having to pay for the court battle.

Other Louisiana doctors are under attack as well. The LSMBE is reportedly calling compounding pharmacists to find out which physicians are prescribing bioidentical hormones like estriol. Our source revealed that she knows at least eight physicians who have been targeted by the board—at least one of whom was forced to sign a consent decree, because she didn’t have funds to fight the LSMBE.

Many doctors sign consent decrees to stop harassment from the board—but often it just makes the situation worse, because boards use those decrees to build a case against the doctor, trying to catch them on consent decree technicalities, and also saying it proves that the integrative treatments are outside the regular standard of care.

Part of the problem is that the Louisiana statute for CAM practitioners is contradictory and weak, making it open to abuse by a biased medical board. According to a legal team working on the LSBME attacks, the Louisiana statute “is intended to provide physicians practice latitude, as evidenced by the statement that: ‘The use of integrative or complementary medicine for the diagnosis or treatment of any illness, disease or condition, constitutes legitimate medical therapy…’ [but] CAM therapies are constrained by having to ‘comply with the standard of care applicable to conventional medicine practitioners.’ ”

In other words, practitioners are protected only if they adhere to the standard of care applicable to conventional medicine practitioners. The law provides a basis for sanctioning a practitioner for using a CAM therapy or diagnostic procedure—irrespective of the lack of patient harm or the positive outcome of the therapy—simply because the therapy or diagnostic procedure is not accepted by conventional medicine as the standard of care.

Ostensibly, the LSMBE has an Integrative and Complementary Medicine Committee. LSMBE put up the website with all the committee members listed, but when the members were actually phoned, it was revealed that the board has never bothered to convene this group or provide them with any funding! It appears that the board is creating the illusion that they are tolerant of integrative medicine when the reality is very different.

If you are a Louisiana resident, please write to the LSMBE today. Tell them that Louisiana regulations are supposed to provide integrative physicians latitude—and LSMBE should comply with the law. Tell them the board should not allow personal biases against integrative medicine to influence their oversight. Finally, ask them to make sure the Integrative and Complimentary Medicine Committee is funded and meets regularly—and ask them to listen to the committee’s recommendations.

Louisiana’s neighbor, Texas, has an infamous state medical board, and you may recall our story last November about Stanislaw Burzynski, MD, PhD. Dr. Burzynski developed (using his own money) a nontoxic gene-targeted cancer therapy called antineoplastons. It has been shown to effectively help cure some of the most “incurable” forms of terminal cancer. In the 1980s, the Texas Medical Board charged him with breaking a law that didn’t actually exist, and tried to revoke his medical license. Numerous investigations later—including an appearance before the Texas Supreme Court—found no violation of any law or standard of care.

The FDA, the pharmaceutical industry, and the National Cancer Institute, knowing how promising Dr. Burzynski’s therapy was proving to be, tried to duplicate his invention, then tried to steal his patents—but failed. Now the Texas Medical Board is making yet another attempt to revoke Dr. Burzynski’s medical license which, if successful, would result in the closure of his clinic, the abandonment of all his patients, and would forever end any possibility of antineoplastons gaining FDA-approval.

Now it is coming to a head—a date has been set for the beginning of the court case: April 11, 2012.

Dr. Burzynski’s fight was chronicled in a stunning documentary film, Burzynski: The Movie. More info on the documentary can be found at the film’s website, while the movie itself can be viewed online for a limited time. ANH-USA sent DVDs of the Dr. Burzynski documentary to all the members of the Texas legislature, as well as to Texas Governor Rick Perry—and his copy was signed by the film’s director!

How very sad that this country is so hypocritcal in it’s medical care. We allow use of smoking materials (instead of sponsoring campaignes to eliminate this proven killer) we allow alcohol (which also is a proven health wrecker) —yet the government is trying to cripple the Natural Health practitioners who are trying to help cure people through (many times PROVEN remedies) instead of insisting they be allowed only conventional medical treatments —-which have proven to be dismal failures in the past. Has conventional treatment cured anything in the last 150 years inspite of all the money that is thrown at research —and conventional methods???
Not much! If people are subjected to such outdated medical drugs and medical testing —what has it all become. A greedy and wicked case of selfish “job security”. GOD give us more devoted Natural Health Practitioners, please !

Along this same line—-we are subjecting our children to the obscene violence in movies and on television—-and then wonder why there is so much violence in this world. Our morals are being destroyed by so called “freedom of speech” Our values are so badly compromised by the advancement of technical “toys ” which are destroying our world before our very eyes. When are we going to wake up. (maybe censorship is not really so bad after all) The Bible warns us of “the love of money, is the root of all evil”

Your comment is reckless on its face. One, you don’t know where Gov. Perry stands on the issue; two, you don’t know if he has ever reviewed Burzynski’s practice or background. There’s a lot more than one issue that goes on in a state, especially the size of Texas. If you might recall, last year during a drought he went to bat for the state in a vain attempt to gain FEMA funds due to the fires raging through and yet was rebuffed by the Obama Administration which is unconscionable. That administration picks winners & losers. Given the fact that Perry looks out for the people of Texas, if he is made aware of these events facing Burzynski, he would likely fight for him and be his best ally in the fight. Get informed yourself instead of making false accusations.

This sort of outrageous and CRIMINAL behaviour on the part of the FDA, Big Pharma and all other parties in collusion with them will soon lose their ability to control and hurt the public with their greed and manipulation. This is 2012, remember? This year miraculous shifts in consciousness are already underway on the planet and in this arena, the days of the evil are numbered. The whole game of life is going to change, and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it. Good people will triumph over evil, pain and suffering will end, physical ailments and disabilities will be healed, and life will be transformed. It’s in the cycles of the stars, so don’t despair. The end is near, and a stunning new beginning is imminent. Just hang on tight–because it will be quite a ride!

I had a friend I went to church with for years, who developed pancreatic cancer. He went the traditional route, had part of his pancreas removed, was told they got it all, and underwent a particularly severe regimen of chemotherapy. For a week or two after the chemotherapy he seemed to be doing well, then started going downhill and had to go back into the hospital. There they found the cancer had spread to his liver and was inoperable. Just a few weeks later he died.

I can’t help believing if he’d gone to Dr. Burzynski he’d still be here today, alive and well.

Sad to say both the pharmaceutical industries and the FDA are as corrupt as a boxcar load of rotten potatoes. They are in bed with each other, and from what I’ve heard bribes are a way of life in the drug industry. The drug manufacturers make obscene profits off of their products, selling pills for hundreds of dollars that cost them only pennies to produce. They pay money to the FDA for fast track approval of new drugs, and the FDA in turn seemingly does everything in its power to protect these obscene profits. They stage armed raids on clinics, health food stores, dairy farmers, cherry growers, anybody that uses natural methods or substances in treating illnesses etc. Several years ago FDA agents actually went to ecuador, kidnapped him, in violation of Ecuadorian laws, a court order from an Ecuadorian judge, and in violation of US and international laws forced him onto an airplane, flew him back to Miami and put him in prison. His crime: selling a cancer cure that worked. The FDA for all practical purposes make its own laws, bypassing congress, and has made it a felony crime to make health claims for any natural substance, even when such claims are the absolute truth. Making the claim that cherries relieve gout, a true statement, makes cherries a drug according to the FDA, an unapproved (illegal) drug, and invites an armed raid if you are a cherry grower or sell cherries and make such a statement. Saying water cures dehydration makes it a drug, according to this way of thinking. Now, again in the interests of protecting drug company profits, the FDA is wanting to regulate virtually all natural substances into oblivion, seeing that they take away some measure of drug company profits.

We need to write our congressmen en mass, flooding them with complaints about FDA and drug company conduct, enough that they will sit up and take notice. The problem is the drug companies make so…

It is obvious that the government and big phama is in bed together. they are no longer are caring to save peoplebut may actually want more people to die.. we do have a population control issue being questioned by our governent because “what are we going to do when the baby boomers retire”

These atrocities are occurring all over the US with rogue prosecutors and investigators that are in bed with the FDA, which is in bed with big pharmaceuticals. Laws are invented or ignored to harass practitioners by agents that don’t know the difference even between steroids and natural hormones or the difference between replacing hormones and body-building. Many times these attacks are hush-hush while the practitioner emotionally and financially dies a thousand deaths. Our freedom of choice is at stake. Big government is pulling all the strings and when they are wrong, they are immune from counterattack. Money is the puppets’ strings and the wellness of Americans is sacrificed. Medical innovation is squelched. Where will this lead us in the future?

“Only an idiot” aptly describes the policy and its creator(s). The governmental health organizations and the drug companies are colluding “idiotically” because of the enormous amount of money to be made, the health of the public be damned.

Dr. Burzynski is a brilliant and heroic man.If any one of these members of the Louisisna State Medical Board had a loved one who had cancer would they not want their lives to be saved without sufering and pain. What Big Pham has done in it’s greediness is as heinous as the worst crimes ever committed. t’s time for the American people to get together and revolt against these atrocities. I cannot imagine what other countries are thinking about out health care system.
LET’S STOP THE GREED AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS. IS THE REALLY THE CIVILIZED UNITED STATES OF AMERICA- THE LAND OF THE FREE. IS THIS WHAT OUT SOLDIERS ARE FIGHTING FOR.

Everytime I think about Dr. Burzynski and his plight, I just want to cry. I am doing all I can to spread the news about his work and his mistreatment by the rogue FDA, and all of its minions hiding behind those three loathsome letters of a shameless bureaucracy. My love around you, Dr. Burzynski. When will everyone else wake up to the truth about our lives, and who is actually running it.

I watched the movies on the Documentary Film Channel ( I have it through Direct; not sure what other carriers have this channel) and it was FANTASTIC! So much information that I had no idea about! Who knew the medical field is a sausage factory as portrayed? And we all know what they say about no one should ever see how sausage is made – - -

I’m from out of state; is there anything I can do? This doctor has given so much of himself, taken so much backlash that has hurt him professionally and financially, not to mention to his credibility which, after viewing this film, to me, is beyond reproach.

This sounds childish. They should be congratulating this doctor for his work and new cancer treatment but instead are jealous like children and are trying to take it or destroy it because its not theirs. An people suffer in the long run. Silly.

Conventional medical doctors are not trying to prolong our lives, just make as much as they can off us until they kill us. Thomas Edison had it right when he said “The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will educate his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease”. Doctors that heal are useless to the medical community but so valuable to us.

I think it should be able for all the united states to file these petitions we have people all over the u.s. that are dying because of cancer that isnt being treated the way these doctors know how too. we are subjected to big phara and fda and the ama medical board which are all in it together to make money off of these patients and to eventually kill them. i have just lost a good friend due to this and another is now there. he is buffaloed into believing the VA and having chemo. he will die as well all b ecause of our government that is out to kill us instead of healing us. ITS NOT RIGHT. make these petitions available to everyone. we are all in this together not just each individual state at a time. we must band together and put a stop to this insanity.

Please send a copy of the DVD Burzynski: The Movie to CBS 60 minutes and tell them that Stanislaw Burzynski, MD, PhD is the original source of a nontoxic gene-targeted cancer therapy called antineoplastons. Last Sunday, 60 minutes said that “Dr. Anil Potti seemed to make a breakthrough in cancer therapy by matching patients’ unique tumors with the most effective treatments – a Holy Grail in oncology. But his mentor at Duke University says Dr. Potti manipulated the data and betrayed his trust. Correspondent Scott Pelley reports.” It seems that Dr. Anil Potti was trying to duplicate the work of Burzynski which works most of the time.

Most of us know people that have had or now have cancer. I know people who listened to me and went to Dr. Burzynski. They are still alive after being told they would die in 6 weeks to 6 months by M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and the Mayo Clinic. The others that I told to go to Dr. Burzynski and did not listen to me are ALL dead. Some were my friends, some just acquaintances. One young lady with a brain tumor the size of a baseball is still alive and visits the good doctor when she is in Houston. See started visiting him over three years ago after being told she would die within a year because she refuse to take chemo treatments. She is a traveling sales person. I admire her willingness to try Dr. Burzynski’s methods when she decided she would rather die than suffer from chemo as her other family members had done. Let’s support this remarkable man.

But it gets much more worse than that. Insurance companies in Louisiana are turning CAM practitioners into the LSBME for investigation. Additionally, when presented with scientific research to support CAM, the chief medical examiner says: “no amount of scientific evidence you can present will sway my opinion”. Finally, the chief medical examiner has made it known she wants to not only run CAM practitioners out of the state, but run out compounding pharmacies as well. How do I know this? I too am a physician under attack but the LSBME.

The shame of it is, the LSBME was set up to protect the people of Louisiana, but the LSBME is actively obstructing the access of Louisiana citizens to good medicine.

Doc, I live in Baton Rouge and I am fed up with the way good integrative medical physicians are treated. The LSBME is about $$$$ not health. Keep your head up, hang in there. We need you and value you. CAM’s are doing God’s work!

I saw the movie about Dr. Burzynski and it is disgusting what they tried to do to that man.He’s helped so many people I just can,t believe what they put him through.Someone intelligent enough to cure most cancers shouldn,t have to go through that.I will be praying for him!

Please take the time to at least view the DVD sent to you: Dr Burzynski’s documentary. I always tell skeptics of these types of films, even of only have the information is true, the indications are world changing. It is your duty as a leader of this country to be informed. To represent all the people of this nation without bias and make and educated decision on the pressing issues of alternative medicine. Thousands of lives and millions of loved ones lives could be at stake. Are they worth the hour and half I takes to watch this film or for you own research on a topic so important? Many of us think ‘yes’. Please take the time.

I am an Australian citizen with American family. The attacks on integrative and natural medicine in America have international significance for two reasons. These are 1) the damage they can potentially cause to the reputation and relevance of the US as a free and fair country, and 2) the precedents they may set. Therefore, international objections to developments within the US should be heard and considered, along with the groundswell in the US itself. Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for one and all.

dr burzynski is great humanitarian, whose heart is filed with love and compassion for those that need life saving , non invasive health support. we must not let the govt or the state of texas disrupt or indeed uphold such life saving protocols. we support dr burzynski in all his work, and we applaud his sincerity in his quest to help his fellow man and woman regain their health. dr tony o donnell psychologist/nutritionist.

I am 86 years old, in good health, and I will tell you why. For the past thirty years I have seen practitioners of Integrative Medicine exclusively, with the exception when I worked for a business where I was injured and had to see Worker’s Compensation physicians. I find it appalling that conventional medical practitioners know so little about the human body and its needs for optimum health. Instead, they rely on pharmaceuticals which rarely cure and which have side effects that take several pages to enumerate. I have been so fortunate with my Integrative physicians, who take the time to conduct extensive blood and urine chemistry tests to determine shortages or excesses of elements present, and recommend vitamins, minerals and herbals to balance those that are not within the safe zone.

Why is it that this is not taught in medical schools in the U.S.? Other nations have done it for many years, but here, our medical association is in bed with the pharmaceutical industry and it is so easy to simply prescribe a pharmaceutical rather than taking the time to discover where the bodily imbalance lies and corect it with natural substances and not chemical ones.

I am also aghast that pharmaceutical researchers create more dangerous strains of viruses and diseases so that they may create a “cure” for them. From time to time these laboratory creations get out of hand and kill or main millions. And I am greatly offended that we, the taxpayers, foot the bill for such research.

The so-called “Health” industry is actually a “Sickness” industry that has no intention to cure anything, but simply to rake up huge profits through keeping their victims in a state of misery for years and years.

One must sympathize with these physicians but they do have ways to protect themselves. I have some thoughts but my direct knowledge is limited to veterinary practice.

Standards of medical practice exist to ensure that every licensed practitioner provides a minimal level of diagnostic expertise and subsequently offers one of the tried-and-true treatments for the condition. The practitioner must act when new symptoms disprove the existing diagnosis or when the standard treatment does not work on a particular patient. The standards merely reflect how I would expect my physician or vet to treat me or mine.

A CAM practitioner who carries a conventional medical or veterinary license must first satisfy the standards of practice associated with that license and only offer CAM in addition. The standards do not require the practitioner to reject CAM but rather to have very good reasons for not providing the standard treatment first.

When one delivers CAM instead of the standard treatment, the practitioner must not only prepare a medical justification but also retain proof that the patient or guardian has been fully informed regarding all options and has freely chosen CAM. For example, Steve Jobs died sooner because he delayed standard treatment to try an unproven CAM alternative. He was fully informed and that was his choice.

One positive veterinary example relates to a veterinarian who was certified in veterinary acupuncture. While other vets did question acupuncture, this lady never abandoned conventional pain killers. She offered acupuncture to pet owners who had already rejected drugs for their own reasons or for animals who did not benefit from drugs.

There were some vets who argued that she should have expelled those customers who would not agree to the standard practice. She prevailed due to testimonials from satisfied owners.

No defense is perfect. The Colorado veterinary board suspended one vet’s license for merely working in a practice that had sanitation issues. The results of two sanitation inspections were “lost” and never communicated to the practice but the vet was told that he “should have known”. The board clearly had animus against that vet and trumped-up the charge.

We can sympathize with these physicians but can also expect them to honor their standards of practice. We can also hope that they have not intentionally antagonized the board.

Steve Jobs had pancreatic cancer, that has a very low cure rate and life expectancy is very short. Jobs started nutritional therapy, which was a risky but WISE decision. He lasted 7 more years from initiating treatment in 2004, He probably lived longer than if he had undergone conventional therapy as Jackie Kennedy(breast cancer) and Ted Kennedy(brain cancer) did and had shortened lives.

I have followed the fight Dr. Burzynski has had to wage against the FDA, the pharmaceutical industry and the National Cancer Institute, and I think it’s a travesty the way the Doctor and his patients have been treated. Enough already. Many cancers have been eliminated because of Dr. Burzynski’s research and treatment. People are talking about the “health care bill” and having to follow the demands of government…..I want to be able to decide on my own health care. Big business, Big Pharma have never cared what carcinogens or toxins I eat, drink or swim in. When their poor decisions make me deathly ill…I want to be able to choose the best treatment for me to survive. I want to be able to see Dr. Burzynski.
How can I, in Kansas, stand up for the Doctors’ rights? I want to help. His well being affects all of us. I believe in Dr. Burzynski and his cancer treatments. He needs to be able to do what he does best. Leave him alone and allow him to help the sick and dying live.

we have such a great country but its outragous how big $$$$ controls the lawmakers, when someone like dr burzynski is curing cancer and is persacuted because he is not a drug giant, do they really want cures, i think they only want $$$$$, hunan life means nothing, its hard to believe, does anyone in the drug industry want anything but more$$$$$$

please stop the insanity. complimentary alternative medicine is needed
it has worked for myself, family and friends. know of thousands that it has worked.
why work with medicine that has existed only 150 years, using synthetic chemicals to try to imitate what already existed? this is fact, and I am a board certified ASCP MLT.
if all these committees can not see , how bad modern medicine and gmo foods, look at proof.
the cancer, asthma, type 2 diabetes, hypothyroidism & allergies are increasing ten fold. and all one has to do is see the news, to see pharmaceuticals cause 450,000 adverse reactions and over 125,000 deaths per year. all these new diseases result in cancer or heart disease. please stop the insanity. does it take all these celebrities to die , of either pneumonia, drug overdoses from prescribed meds? or look at the mortality rates, in the usa.

Since patients come to Dr. Burzynski from all over the U.S, (and more I am sure) why can’t non-residence also write to the Texas legislative Oversight Committees and Gov. Rick Perry? His ability to practice in his chosen state effects much more than just the citizens of Texas.

I eyes to like to use caps because they are easier for my 85 year old eyes to read!
As a user and supporter of natural approaches to health, I feel the medical establishment
is doing much more harm than good by its attitude.

I have the movie about Dr. Burzynski and I think it is a crime how the TX Medical Board and the FDA has treated him. If I got cancer I would want to go to him. Now Louisiana is treating its doctors badly. There are so many clinical tests to show how bioidentical hormones are working for women. I have been taking them for years and I don’t intend to stop. I think the pressure is on the compounding pharmacies to stop using estriol. It happened to the last doctor and the pharmacy he was using. He would not go to another one so I left him. What’s happening to our freedom?

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